The Non Canon Fic Consideration
by paycheckgurl
Summary: Leonard reads Avatar: The Last Airbender fanfics Howards sends him, only to be annoyed and confused by the noncanon Zutara ship. Meta fanfiction commentary ensues. No knowledge of Avatar required to be able to enjoy the fic.


_**Disclaimer**__: I don't own The Big Bang Theory, Avatar: The Last Airbender or The Legend of Korra._

**A/N:** _The first draft of this has been sitting on my laptop for a while now. Recently the idea that inspired this fic resurfaced and felt compelled to take another look at it while procrastinating on my research paper (my poor, long neglected Spider-Man fics will get more attention once finals are over). My hope is I wrote this in such a way you don't have to read Avatar: The Last Airbender fanfiction, or even have watched The Last Airbender to get the point of this. Please yell at me if you think I failed._

* * *

"Okay that's it I just don't get it," declared Leonard in a huff

"Don't get what?" responded Howard

Raj, Leonard, Howard, and Sheldon sat around Leonard and Sheldon's living room; Raj Sheldon and Howard were leafing through the latest comics from their pull lists whilst Leonard was looking up from a laptop. It was a Wednesday, New Comic Book Day, so the girls had headed across the hall to Penny's after their traditional group takeout meal while the boys went got their comics. Rather than return home after the trip to Stewart's however, the boys decided to wait for the girls to decide they'd drank too much and see them home (except for Penny whom was technically already home, but Leonard still wanted to make a point of checking on her). To kill time while the girls got "Crazzy" (whatever the heck that meant) they'd decided to leaf through their comics, all except Leonard whom finished reading earlier and proceeded to check his email. A certain amount of time after reading the links attached to a certain email in particular, Leonard looked up at Howard. "You know those Avatar fanfics you sent me?"

Howard looked up confused, "Yeah what about them?"

"Well first of all they were disturbing, seriously isn't the oldest of these kids supposed be like sixteen…but that's not the point. The point is from them I found my way to the archive and I just don't get this Zutara thing. It's _everywhere_."

"Yeah so?" asked Howard

"So I don't know. It doesn't bother you? I mean think about it; here's Aang the nice, sweet guy that clearly from the pilot episode onwards has this strong emotional bond with Katara, whom would be any twelve year old kids dream girl and whom his bond with throughout the show only gets stronger, and then here are these people that decide "the hell with cannon, we're going to write erotic stories about Katara and Prince Zuko", two people that have a platonic friendship _at best- _I mean there was that whole phase where she would have rather had him just be dead- just because they find Zuko more compelling. And by compelling I mean they want to jump mister broody scar guy's bones."

"Dude its fanfiction," interjected Raj "Like ninety percent of it is romance fic, and even more of it is non-canon stuff like that."

"I'm sorry, but where did you pull these figures from?" asked Sheldon, whom hadn't even bothered to lookup from his issue of _Detective Comics._

"A reputable statistics site," responded Raj confidently.

"The TV Tropes wiki is not a reputable statistics site," he responded.

"It is if you're too lazy to look for a reputable statistics site."

Leonard rolled his eyes ignoring them, addressing Howard "I guess…but I still really don't get it. I mean, just because you find someone attractive yourself or think that two people have, or really more the case with Katara and Zucko could have _the potential to have,_ a cool friendship doesn't mean you should ship them together, especially when they both have their own love interest whom are actually likeable."

"The hell is Mai likeable?" asked Raj "Seriously all she does is stand there and go 'Whatever'".

"Hey, I like Mai," said Howard "…that knife thing she does is so hot."

"Eh, I prefer that one girl from the Ba Sing Se to be honest. Although while we're talking about shipping Yui and Korra all the way!"

"You know you've crossed a line when even _I_ find that one disturbing," said Howard, the image of the underage Avatar Korra and Yue the Moon Spirit/former girlfriend of Korra's mentor's brother, refusing to leave his brain.

Leonard raised his eyebrows, and then continued. "Okay but what about all the other out of character writing of Katara and Zuko? I mean just to make the ship work you have to either let go of some Katara's stubbornness (never mind her latent feelings for Aang and how poor Aang feels in all this) or make Zuko more open, softer and just not himself. Or when they write part of this love triangle (that aside from ship tease that's obviously not meant to be anything but that-a tease, a wink at the audience) and ultimately _doesn't exist in cannon_, to be a complete ass or plays up a negative side of them to extremes? Or when a writer thinks they're making it better by pawning Aang off to Toph, but really is just giving him a canonically platonic friend as a constellation prize?"

"Well I'm sure that there some fics that handle all that okay and as for the rest you can't expect everyone to be a fantastic writer," Howard spoke up "Ninety percent of anything is crap?"

"I would congratulate you on having the brain power to correctly quote Sturgeon's Law Howard," spoke Sheldon "but I sense you, like Kootherpali, have pulled your information from TV Tropes, and therefore are using the brain power I'd expect from a lowly engineer such as yourself."

"You know what, this is usually the point where I once again point out _I have a master's degree from MIT_, but you know what? It's not going to get me anywhere."

"Well it looks like I was wrong Howard; you are capable of learning. Perhaps you are worthy of being called 'intellectual' after all."

"Seriously?"

"Bazinga!"

Howard scowled.

Raj just shrugged. "Is Katara and Aang endgame? Yes, they've got like three kids in the Legand of Korra. Does Katang make more sense than Zutara, yes by a long shot. Does Katang have better chemistry? Personal opinion is yes. Is it a total crack ship…it depends on who you ask, but it's obvious you think so. But dude the point is, Katang will always have canon. So let the Zutrarians and write their fics; they're not hurting anyone…usually; they need some way to celebrate what they like. And besides, sometimes noncanon ships are better; literally no one ships Spider-Man with Carly Cooper and Rizzoli and Issles were totally made for each other, regardless of whether or not there was even so much of a hint of them getting together in the book series."

Leonard sighed, "I guess."

"Personally I would just write my own fic without any of this 'shipping' nonsense," interjected Sheldon "Here you have this rich world of culture, tradition, and the struggle between that culture and the far superior science, yet people feel the need to write stories were nothing happens but hippy, dippy kissing and touching when they could be writing about a brilliant scientist that comes up with a way to end all war through superior war machines while explaining the mechanics of bending and the universe in a nonspiritual, completely factual way."

"…And suddenly Zutara based romance fics don't seem so bad. Thanks guys, I think that actually helped: I don't have to like it, or even read it, I just have to accept it's there and that are people that like it. Huh…But I still don't get M Preg." Everyone silently conceded point except for Raj whom awkwardly looked down at the floor.


End file.
